Lounge Chairs: The Missing Puzzle Piece in Your Home

A lounge chair can be the most important furniture in many living rooms. Providing comfort and aesthetic value, lounge chairs will let you embrace ease and relaxation. While shopping, consider all your furniture choices together. Get ready to enhance your room’s design and function.

Imagine the zen and calm you’ll feel settling in on a lounge chair with a new book, next to a fireplace in your living room. Place a chair in the center, and a carefully chosen rug underneath, and your room becomes the right place to chill out. Take stock in how you’d like your most restful spaces to feel. There is no doubt, lounge chairs are the ideal place to find calm. Join us as we travel through the history, the variety of antique and vintage styles available, and the newest modern innovations of the desirable lounge chair.

More than Just a Sofa: The Early History

The beginning of lounge furniture can be traced back to ancient times. It was a privilege to have a chair with a back, not to mention one that allowed the user to relax and indulge in extreme comfort. It is delightful to imagine the history of the most decadent gatherings.

You may imagine a large Greek symposium, a man eating grapes and laying back on a “kline”, a couch that allowed for guests to luxuriate in the event and recline. There is a clear association with lounge furniture and wealth. Only the most privileged had the time to lay around, eat snacks and be fanned by servants.

French Popularity

Naturally, lounge furniture continued to develop. These accent chairs rose to popularity in 16th century France. Once again, the original necessity for this piece arose out of noblemen’s needs. They wanted places to rest, but wanted to avoid disappearing to their bedrooms.

A feminine association can be made here as well. Women are depicted on lounge chairs in many famous artworks of the time. Edouard Manet has a handful of glorious portraits featuring women lounging.

The Business of French Luxury with Louis XV 

During the opulent Rococo period in the 18th century, these chairs became linked with the highest, rarest elegance. Furniture crafters used only the finest and most exquisite materials for each lounge chair. Overlapping with the rule of Louis XV, French aristocrats indulged in leisure to the highest degree. Read more about Rococo furniture in our Bridgerton-inspired blog from last year.

You will be challenged to find anything as sturdy and elegant as a piece like this Chaise Longue, Louis XV style. This piece has a carved walnut frame with new upholstery, as well as single and double wilting on the attached seat cushion. The Louis XV era is a wonderful place to seek items that add lightness, and asymmetrical variety to your living spaces.

Neoclassical Era: Lounging in Style

Delight in the stunning beauty of this Neoclassical Daybed.  This unique piece is made with cherry wood, and crafted delicately with hand carvings on the armrests. Clearly, the Greek and Roman classical eras directly influence the neoclassical period. This daybed could not be a better example of this.

In France, this style became known as a “récamier”, which is a lounge chair that has two raised ends, with nothing on the long edges. Just like the example above, “récamier” lounges are often associated with the French Empire, and the neoclassical era. Madame Récamier is featured lounging on one of these in a portrait by Jaques-Louis David. This painting gave this piece its name.

A 20th Century Living Room: Lounge Chair Developements

As we move into the 20th century, many iconic forms of these chairs emerged. While we may often associate the term “lounge chair” with a backless sofa, that is not the only type. They can also be closer to more typical chairs, with armrests and slightly reclined back rests.

Take, for example, this Pair of J. Halabala Art Deco Lounge Chairs. They are incredibly elegant, featuring well-maintained beech wood and renewed upholstery in cream white. This duo is a wonderful example of the art deco era for furniture. These iconic pieces can be hard to come by, and represent luxury and our revered rest. It is easy to dream up an image of life in these chairs: a glass of wine and a beloved friend, you’d recline, looking out through the window, while light filters in.

The Most Iconic Lounge Chair

A conversation about lounge chairs in the 20th century must include a mention of the most quintessential designers of chairs at this time. For some, Hungarian designer Marcel Breuer is credited with ground-breaking design for his version of in 1928.

Herman Miller even today is well known for its chairs, and in part, thanks to Ray and Charles Eames. Perhaps most notably, the Lounge Chair and Ottoman designed by this duo is still highly sought after. In addition to that modern take on the traditional club chair, Herman Miller bought the license to manufacture this Eames LCW Lounge Chair.

Owning original Eames furniture is a real treat. These designs stand the test of time, not only in function, but also in form.

Thoughtfully Designed Modern Chairs

In this modern era, there is continued innovation happening with lounge chair designs. Do not limit yourself to antique or vintage options while you fill a more open, modern floor plan. Even in the sparsest interior style, contemporary seating can add some comfort to a room with padded cushions. This Bridge Lounge Chair is absolutely stunning. It is a perfect centerpiece for contemporary seating areas or could serve as an unbelievably comfortable daybed for an afternoon nap, complete with memory foam cushions. This piece can accommodate personal touches.

Like all the best ideas in contemporary design, this lounge chair offers not just an engaging approach to seating, but an artistic sensibility that will transform it into a real treasure over the decades and centuries to come.

A Vivid Accent Chair: Bursting with Creativity

A perfectly upholstered and designed chair complements more refined furniture pieces and helps create a clear, contemporary, and comfortable living environment. What about the possibility surprising guests and making your space feel playful and fun?

This NODA Lounge Chair designed by Marine Peyre is a new arrival, that ships directly to you from Europe. It is innovative, modular, clever full of color and available for a very reasonable price. It is hard to imagine anything as expressive and personality-filled as this. There are so many options for how this piece fits into your space. This piece is sure to enhance your personal touch in your home, and inspire endless joy.

Finding the Perfect Chair for Lounging Around

No house is complete without spaces to rest. The ideal spot is both elegant and enveloping, incredibly comfortable and sometimes a bold statement. The best search for the right furniture for you includes a little bit of everything. From reliable antiques and vintage European designs to mid century modern classics and new innovative commissions, you may find it hard to choose. Ready to find the perfect lounge chair for you? Styylish.com makes it easy, and can answer all your questions. Let us do the heavy lifting to sort your best options, and find the lounge chair of your dreams for sale and ready to order on our site.